A Veterans Day musical tribute was held Nov. 10 and the Alpine Veteran’s Wall of Honor had more veterans’ names added to the wall—which already has 700 — in a morning dedication ceremony that started at the Alpine Community Center.
“We celebrate the lives of the wonderful service people,” said singer Carol Compton.
Compton was one of the singers in the line-up for the musical tribute with her rendition of “America the Beautiful.”
The musical and spoken word tribute included performances by Linzy Gowing, Peter Hastings, Sam Nehemiah, Jim Pontzious, Deanne Miller, Stan Christianson, and Diana Saenger.
Vietnam veteran Dan Foster, was the master of ceremonies.
Foster was a pivotal force in establishing the Alpine Veteran’s Wall of Honor, along with other board members such as Diana Saenger, Rod Galloway, and Debbie Jackson.
The wall recently saw the addition of 19 more names of service members from a variety of military branches.
The names added to the wall are: Jerry M. Pondelicek, George Soto, Billy Pate, Billy Shepherd, Donald Lumb Sr., Donald Lumb II, Eric Ramirez, Clayton Baum, William Riddell, Harold Michael Faurot, Hector De La Torre, Francisco Alfaro, Javier De La Torre, Robert V. Ring, Lewis Stauffer, Mark Webb, Steven Hudson, Albert Underwood Jr., and Samuel McClurkin.
Former Viejas Tribal Chairman and member of the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians Anthony Pico spoke to those in attendance.
“He (Dan Foster) is here because of his resilience,” said Pico. Pico is also a veteran.
A collection of service organizations such as the color guard of VFW Bert Fuller Post #9578 and the Kiwanis contributed to the joint purpose celebration.
Nov. 11 was known as Armistice Day and was a reference to the armistice agreement that was signed to end the First World War.
Armistice Day was enacted by President Woodrow Wilson in 1919 at the end of WWI.
In 1954, after going through more wars, the 83rd Congress inserted the word veterans instead of armistice, hence the day became Veterans Day, not Armistice Day.
